Chocolate Chip Cookies

The kids and I just love these cookies – soft and chewy oozing with chocolate. I always use dark chocolate but you can use a mix of dark and milk or just milk chocolate if you prefer. Hope you enjoy these as much as we do.

Ingredients

  • 225g butter, softened
  • 350g soft light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 200g chocolate, chopped

Method

Pre heat oven to 160c.

Cream butter and sugar together till light and creamy.

Add eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl to ensure that they are mixed in well. Add the vanilla.

Slowly add the flour and bicarbonate of soda and mix till it is well combined.

Add the chopped chocolate and evenly distribute to the cookie dough.

Spoon a spoonful of cookie dough onto a non stick baking sheet, leaving some space between the cookies and bake for 10 minutes. The cookies will still be soft when you remove them from the oven, let it cool on the baking sheet for a further 10 minutes before cooling completely on a cooling rack.

Ginger Cookies

This is a recipe I found in a supermarket magazine years ago and saved it as it is one of our favourite, slightly crunchy and gingery cookies. For an extra indulging treat, we like to drizzle some dark chocolate over them.
Ginger Cookies

Ginger Cookies

Ingredients

  • 225g self raising flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 125g butter, chilled, cut into cubes
  • 100g soft dark brown sugar
  • 100g golden syrup
  • 100g dark chocolate (optional)

Method

Pre heat the oven to 160c. Sift the flour and spices together. Add the cubed butter and combine (by hand) into the flour to resemble breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, followed by the golden syrup. Mix by hand to form a dough. Make small balls with the dough and put them on a baking sheet, pressing them down slightly. Leave some space between the cookies and they will expand as they cook. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. Once baked, allow them to cool on the baking sheet for a further 10 minutes before moving them onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Optional – melt the chocolate in the microwave. Fill a piping bag with the melted chocolate and drizzled over the cooled, cooked cookies.

Easy Biscuits

You can’t get easier to make biscuits than these! A Mary Berry recipe that always goes down a treat with the kids. You can keep the biscuits as they are or if you prefer, you can add some sprinkles on the top before baking, or dip the biscuits in some melted chocolate once they are cooked. The recipe makes 12 biscuits.

Ingredients

  • 100g butter, softened
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 150g self raising flour

Method

Preheat the oven to 160c. Put some baking paper onto a baking tray.

Beat the butter and sugar together till light and creamy.

Add the flour and bring the mix together with hands to form a dough.

Form 12 small balls. Use the back of a fork to slightly flatten the biscuits and give it a nice shape.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Easy Biscuits

Easy Biscuits

Overnight Weetabix

This is one recipe I get asked about a lot for some reason, so I have finally done a video showing you how I make mine. You can replace the Weetabix with oats if you prefer (40g porridge oats is a healthy extra B choice) but I personally do not like overnight oats, hence why I make with Weetabix instead and I almost always have chocolate Weetabix!

You can make this syn free by using a natural fat free yogurt and counting the Weetabix as your healthy extra B choice. You can add some vanilla flavouring to your yogurt to add a bit of sweetness and flavour, I only like eating Alpro yogurts so always have to syn mine. The one featured in the video is 1 syn for 200ml which is not bad at all.

This yogurt can also be eaten straight away after it is made, so if you are not as organised as I am most of the time, I eat this as soon as I make it and tastes great too.

Ingredients

  • 1 apple, chopped
  • Cinnamon powder
  • 200ml Alpro mango yogurt
  • 1 Chocolate Weetabix, crushed

Method

Chop the apple and sprinkle some cinnamon on it.

Crush the Weetabix.

Layer a mason jar with some yogurt, followed by the yogurt and the apple. Continue doing this till you’ve used up the Weetabix.

Place in the fridge till you are ready to eat.

Rajma Curry

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 cal spray oil
  • 2 red onions, chopped
  • Salt, to taste
  • 1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 1/2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
  • 1 tbsp ginger & garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp curry powder/bassar
  • 1/2 tbsp garam masala
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • 2 tins red kidney beans, drained
  • Fresh coriander to garnish

Method

Spray a pan with 1cal spray oil.

Fry onions with the salt till lightly golden. Add cumin seeds and fenugreek. Add water to the pan if the onions start to stick to the pan.

Add the ginger & garlic paste and continue frying for another couple of minutes.

Add the curry powder and garam masala. Cook the spices for around 5 minutes, adding water if needed.

Add the tomato puree, cook for a minute before adding the kidney beans. If you want to you can add more water if the curry looks too dry.

Cover the lid and simmer. Cook gently for 10 minutes before garnishing with fresh coriander. Serve with boiled rice.

Funfetti Traybake

Why make a simple school style traybake when you can make a Funfetti Traybake? Super simple to make and a huge hit with kids. If you don’t want to add the sprinkles into the cake, leave it out and you will still have a delicious cake. Serve it with hot custard or if you want to make it more indulging, top it with buttercream instead.

I use a 9×11 inches cake tin.

 

Ingredients

  • 225g margarine
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 300g self raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 100g sprinkles

To decorate

  • 150ml icing sugar
  • Warm water as needed
  • Sprinkles

Method

Cream the margarine and sugar together till light and creamy.

Add the eggs, one at a time. Add a couple of spoonfuls of flour to stop the mix from curdling.

Once all the eggs have been added, add the rest of the flour, followed by the vanilla extract and the sprinkles.

Pour the cake into a greased and floured tin and bake in a pre heated oven for 30-35 minutes on 170c till the cake is fully baked.

Once baked, let the cake rest in the tin for a few minutes before turning it out on a wire rack and cooling it completely.

To make the icing, mix the icing sugar with warm water till it is smooth. Use more or less water depending on the consistency of icing you prefer (if you prefer a thicker layer of icing, then add more icing sugar). Spread the icing onto the cake and quickly add the sprinkles before the icing starts to harden up.